Making art in the studio, listening to music or NPR and thinking, all the time thinking. It could be about red versus orange or politics or the world collapsing around us or growing old or (most probably) wondering what to have for dinner.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Years and years ago, before the idea of becoming an artist was even a tiny kernel in my heart of hearts, I read all I could find about Egyptian burial practices. Perhaps it was the wonderful collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that inspired my interest or just the mystique surrounding that ancient civilization, but whatever it was, I was hooked. (This was also the period when I studied astrology, wore lots of earrings and necklaces and had purple and pink hair.)

Photo of Tut's sarcophagus showing large floral collar (as found)

I bought some of the reproduction jewelry when "The Treasures of Tutankhamun" toured the U.S. in the late 1970s, and several years after that when I had arrived at art school, I even painted a self portrait in the guise of Tut's gold and lapis mask. Of course I'm kind of cynical about it all after all these years, but I did get a rush when I entered the smallish room at the Met that contained these normally unseen relics from Tutankhamun's funeral and nearby tombs.

Papyrus fiber lids used to cover tops of jars, ca.1336-1327 B.C.

The first thing that struck me as being out of the norm were these fiber lids which looked barely worn after more than 3000 years. The broken pieces of pottery behind them were part of a ritual smashing that served some symbolic meaning in the funeral ritual. Many of the jars in this photo had been pieced together from fragments found in the tomb.

This reproduction tomb drawing shows the mummification process where the corpse is prepared by removing the organs and then immersed in a form of salt for 70 days to dry out the flesh. The desiccated body is then anointed with oils and perfumes, stuffed with sawdust or other materials to fill it out (see later in this post), ritually wrapped with linen and talismanic objects and adorned with a collar and mask if of high enough stature and wealth.

These large jars are from the dozen found in the tomb that held "leftovers" from Tutankhamun's mummification. Some held beer or wine and two contained "leftovers" from the embalming of Yuya and Tuya, thought to be Tut's great grandparents.

Linen kerchiefs or head coverings found in the tomb.

A special indigo-dyed kerchief that had been repaired at the top edge.

I didn't photo the label on this, but I think it's Tutankhamun's mummy/spirit on the left with a priest on the right. The tool in his hand serves a symbolic purpose for entering the afterlife.

These beads were part of a large collar found in a tomb that dated to the reign of Tutankhamun. They represent various flowers and fruits such as lotus petals, cornflowers and palm fronds.

This collar contains rows of berries that were originally bright red, interspersed with tiny blue faience beads. The more dimensional areas are composed of rows of lotus petals enfolded in olive tree leaves and other flowers. The blossoms at the edge were originally blue and bright yellow.

With these fantastic collars was an illustrated chart showing botanical drawings and information about the plants used in creating the collars. From study of bloom times of various plants, scholars have been able to determine that Tutankhamun died in December or January of the year although the cause of his death has long been debated and disputed. Apparently the consensus is that he broke his leg and died of the resulting infection due to his weakened state from malaria.

These three collars are all backed by papyrus sheets onto which plants and flowers are stitched.

The collars were probably the most amazing part of the exhibition for me. I just couldn't believe that they could have survived so well after thousands of years. Their survival is due to the extremely dry climate and careful handling by archeologists and scholars.

In case you wanted to see what a fresh collar would look like, here is a recreation of part of a collar that uses leaves still found today.

From a wall plaque in the installation: Collars of beads had been in style throughout Egyptian history, but during the New Kingdom 1550-1070 B.C., collars either solely of flowers and leaves or combinations of beads with real material became popular. These collars signified semi-divine or divine status of pharaohs, deities and the deceased. During the Armarna period (1353-1366 B.C) of King Akhenaten (thought to be Tutankhamun's father), floral collars were in vogue for personal decoration and as love tokens between the king and queen.

An incredibly detailed small carving showing mourners or worshippers. Note the perfume cone on the woman's head on top of her ornate wig. Underneath it all, her head was probably shaved as bald as that of the man beside her (really).

Pulling the coffin toward the tomb.

Linen wrapping tape left and linen rolls stuffed with sawdust that were found inside the mummy. After the organs were removed and placed in canopic jars, the body became flat and needed to be stuffed to retain its form.

Mourners at the funeral ceremony dressed in wigs and sheer linen.

You know it's all over when you hang up your sandals.

These details are from a painting of the funeral procession from the tomb of the Vizier Ramose who lived and died around the time of Tutankhamun. The tempera painting was made about 1930 by Nina de Garis Davies, one of the unsung artists of history.

The journal of Howard Carter, who found Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. It was written in such light pencil that it was very hard to decipher anything, but I found it thrilling to see the real thing after reading so much about his work.

Finally, papyrus growing in the reflecting pool at the Metropolitan Museum.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Questionnaire is meant to be a lighter version of a bio, a little more revealing in some respects and personal without all the facts bogging it down. I supply the questions and the respondents supply the answers. Either one or both of us supply the images.

The Gold Bug Variations, by Richard Powers or the Raj Quartet, miniseries and book

Who is your favorite musician, musical group or style of music?

Jazz - Thelonious Monk or Keith Jarrett

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70.

What do you most value in your friends?

Honesty and empathy

Name three (or more) artists whose work has influenced your own or whose work you most relate to.

Degas, Picasso, Jim Dine, Matisse

Edgar Degas, After the Bath

Pablo Picasso, "Portrait de l'homme a l'epee et a la fleur

Jim Dine, "Jessie With Skull"

Henri Matisse, "Odalisque au tamarin"

Name an artist (or more than one) whose work you admire but which may be unlike yours.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Both times this year that I've been to New York there have been weather extremes. Last February Binnie and I trudged through 17 inches of snow to see El Anatsui and Leonardo Drew in Chelsea. This past weekend, we drove in through torrential rainstorms on Friday and trained in on Saturday in temps that were 90-plus degrees by nine in the morning in the Connecticut exurbs. But what's a little weather when there's so much to see!

So I went a little crazy with the photographs of course and now the thought of resizing and adjusting them is making me feel tired already. But I never expected to use them all.

Conveying the vast richness of what we saw seems daunting and better approached by dividing to conquer it all. I propose doing a series of posts with images and details of those I thought were outstanding. Some of them have already been covered extensively and unbeatably by Joanne Mattera, so I'm going to skip those but maybe mention some of my personal favorites in those shows.

An assemblage of NY memorabilia including a photo of Binnie and me waiting in line outside the Whitney on Friday evening, snapped by a Keds' promotion staffer.

So here is a list of prospective posts with an image from each of them to pique your interest. I'm not sure about the order in which they'll actually appear, but these are things I would like to cover.

Tutankhamun's Funeral at the Metropolitan Museum

One of the necklaces/collars of beads and leaves found in Tutankhamun's funeral cache, ca. 1336-1327 BC

This was a fabulous show of objects that I have never seen the like of. I was especially bowled over by these collars and other fiber items that have survived more than 3,000 years.

Famous Paintings/Sculptures that are mind boggling in person (mostly at MoMA)

Detail from "Rebus" of 1955 by Robert Rauschenberg, 8'H x 10'11" W

Henri Matisse - we saw the 'Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917" show at MoMA but no photography was allowed. I'm going to use some images from the website (I hope) to discuss it. Meanwhile, here is one of my favorite Matisse paintings that was not in the exhibition because it is was painted earlier.

"The Red Studio," 1911, about 6' H x 7' W

Charles Burchfield, Heat Waves in a Swamp, at the Whitney Museum

"An April Mood," 1948-1955, 40"x54", watercolor and charcoal on joined paper.

This is a fabulous show of huge, extremely dynamic watercolor paintings. The Whitney did an excellent job with this show and have it installed on the whole 3rd floor. Since they have an asinine policy of no photography anywhere in the museum, I couldn't photo it myself, but I bought the wonderful book and will take some pix from there to show you.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Misa, as she is called, leads off in the first post of a recurring feature of Art in the Studio. The Questionnaire is meant to be a lighter version of a bio, a little more revealing in some respects and personal without all the facts bogging it down. I supply the questions and the respondents supply the answers. Either one or both of us supply the images.

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What am I reading?

I'm always reading something and now it's another one of Robert Caro's volumes of Lyndon Johnson's biography. "Passage of Power" is the fourth volume in this monumental series and covers the years 1958 to 1964. This period of Johnson's life was full of extremes of power - from the peak as Majority Leader of the Senate, then fading as he failed to actively campaign for the presidential nomination in 1960. Once he joined Kennedy on the 1960 Democratic ticket, his southern connections gave Kennedy the win, but Johnson sank into powerless oblivion and became the butt of jokes by "the Harvards." On Kennedy's death, Johnson ascended to the presidency and experienced another series of extremes of political power.

Caro is a master of biography and is always interesting and informative. I recommend this volume (and series) to anyone who follows politics and wants to know some background on how we got where we are today.